Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights criticized the European countries' voting against the Human Rights Council's resolution to establish a commission of inquiry into human rights violations in the Palestinian territories following the recent Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Monitor sent a memorandum to the European Union's foreign Ministers in Germany, Britain, and Austria and expressed worries about the countries' voting against the establishment of a commission of inquiry. "It is disappointed that central European countries either abstained from voting in favor of the resolution or voted against impartial efforts towards transparency and accountability," it said.
Euro-Med Monitor's chairman, Ramy Abdu, said in his memorandum sent to the European ministers that the international investigation is essential to reach trustworthy conclusions regarding the attacks committed during the latest Israeli military attack on Gaza and to shed light on the reasons that lead to repeated tensions in the Palestinian territories.
Abdu stated that the latest Israeli military attack on Gaza that caused severe loss of the civilians' souls and properties forces everyone, most importantly the European countries, to hold the perpetrators accountable for committing such crimes and violations against human rights and to take serious actions to stop them.
The Human Rights Council a resolution to launch an international investigation into the Israeli violations committed in the occupied Palestinian territories since April; 24 voted in favor of the resolution, 9 voted against it, and 14 abstained from voting.
More than 50 foreign Ministers and former international officials signed, yesterday evening, a memorandum that condemns the political intervention in the efforts made by the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes of so-called war in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel and to confirm the importance of zero-tolerance to attempts of defamation and discrediting the ICC.
"Success of the international commission of inquiry established by the Human Rights Council will mainly depend on the cooperation of concerned parties," Abdu said and noted that the Palestinians showed constant cooperation with the Fact-Finding Missions while Israel keeps hindering the movement of those missions.
He confirmed that the European countries are responsible for putting pressure on Israel to cooperate with the investigation if it really needs an international system that depends on the law, and that they must play a central role to ease the efforts made towards transparency and accountability instead of hindering them as they are main principles in the Europeans'.
He warned that the European countries' position against the resolution of establishing a commission of inquiry will undermine its honesty at the international and regional level and wondered whether it was necessary to make the world protect Europe's call for an international system depending on laws while Europe itself helps the Israeli governments and incites it to violate this system.
on May 10, the Israeli Army launched a military attack on Gaza for 11 days, killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, destroyed thousands of residential units, and caused severe damage to the infrastructure.
Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights published in May a comprehensive report titled "Inescapable Hell" where it documented a series of violations for principles of the humanitarian international law during its latest military attack on Gaza and called on the International Criminal Court to hold the Israeli soldiers and leaders accountable.
Source : Safa